The Cave School

Guizhou is one of the poorest regions in China. Due to water and food shortages many people find it difficult to stay alive. These shortages have also affected education, leaving many children without a school to go to. The Miao people in the Southern part of Guizhou have made the best of their situation by opening an elementary school in a cave, and named it the Mid-Cave Primary School. The school was opened in 1984, and in the past had 8 teachers who taught 186 students. These students had no other place to be educated.

The cave is massive and beautifully detailed from the natural elements. Inside there are wooden classrooms and a basketball court for break times. Even though there is not that much inside, going to a school in a cave has advantages. Teachers at the school found the acoustics perfect for choir practice, and said that biology became much more interesting as lizards and bats also live in the cave. A former headmaster also described the school’s environment as perfect for teaching geology.

Unfortunately, the Chinese closed the school in early 2011, saying that “China is not a society of cavemen.” This disappointed many who worked or had a part in the school. Their opinion was that having school in a cave is better than giving the children of these villages no education at all.